This was Cider-Glazed Pork Chops and Classic Green Bean Casserole.
A two-pound-bag of green beans I bought was the beginning of the story. According to J's request, the whole bag was going to become green bean casserole. That would be fine. But just a big bowl of green bean casserole for dinner sounded a little awkward. While I was browsing Cook's Illustrated website, the cider-glazed pork chops caught my eye. It would be a perfect autumn meal!
For green bean casserole, I adapted a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. The recipe called for 2 pound green beans. Perfect! After washing all green beans, I realized how many green beans I was cooking for only two of us...
Although I knew the recipe kindly said you could easily halve the recipe, I have already bought 1 pound of mushroom for the recipe. So I made the full scale of the casserole. To lighten the recipe without sacrificing the texture and flavor, I replaced the half amount of heavy cream with whole milk and for the topping mixture, replaced all butter with a couple of tea spoons of olive oil. The green beans were still lovely creamy and flavorful with tasty crunchy toppings!
To make the cider-glaze for the pork, the recipe called for apple juice or cider, cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, light brown sugar, soy sauce and a pinch of red chili pepper. I had all but apple juice or cider. I couldn't find non-from-concentration, non-sugar added, pure fresh apple juice or cider at the local grocery store. So, I grated and squeezed a fresh apple to make 1/3 cup of apple juice. I believe this was better than commercial processed apple juice. I guess the pork chops were thinner than what the recipe called for; they reached the targeted temperature quickly. I was supposed to finish cooking the port in the glaze, but had to skip the step. I rushed to cook down the glaze itself while the pork chops were rested, and returned the pork into the thicken glaze to just coat both sides.
The glaze was sweet indeed. While sweet savory dish is not usually my favorite, this sweet fruity glaze was suitable for pork, especially for this apple season.
